The Minority in Parliament has accused the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) of exploiting the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill commonly referred to as the anti-LGBTQ bill for electoral advantage, only to retreat from it after winning power.
Addressing a press conference in Parliament on Monday, January 26, Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin claimed the NDC has gone silent on the bill since assuming office, despite previously backing its passage.
According to him, recent comments by President John Mahama suggesting the government is undertaking broader consultations to refine the legislation amount to a reversal of position. “We hear His Excellency the President play on words, saying the government is engaging in wider consultation to see how the law could be formulated in a better way. Really?” Afenyo-Markin questioned.
He argued that the same bill was earlier deemed acceptable by the NDC, and that when Minority MPs pursued it as a private member’s bill to hold the Majority to its stated principles, the NDC allegedly used parliamentary procedures to block it. He further accused the Majority Leader of attempting to deny prior approval by the Speaker and shifting blame onto the Clerk of Parliament once the motion appeared on the Order Paper.
“The NDC used the anti-LGBTQ law only for power, and now that they are facing the reality, they want to find a way of running away from it,” Afenyo-Markin said. “We will insist that they act by their own principles.”
The Minority maintains that the NDC’s sudden quietness on the bill and what it describes as shifting rhetoric from the presidency demonstrate political expediency rather than conviction.
